LORI GREENE'S SHOP, MOSAIC ON A STICK, HUMS WITH CHATTER from neighbors coming in to browse for supplies, gossip, sign up for classes, and look around for new pieces on display in the store windows. “So how’s your daughter’s wedding coming along?” Lori asks Lily, one of her regular customers, as she rings up her supplies. Over the course of the morning, a number of the store’s faithful pass in and out, and Lori is quick to proudly point out the newest of her students’ contributions to the artwork on display and for sale. Greene stops unpacking a box of new stock for a moment when a woman approaches her with a handful of ceramic tiles.  Turns out she’s  looking for just the right color brown for a mosaic she’s making with her kids: “We’re making Martin Luther King, Jr. and I’m not sure which of these will work best. Lori, what do you think?”  In just the few short years since Lori Greene and Maria Ricke opened “the Stick”, they’ve put down solid roots in this community, helping to organize neighborhood-wide art collaborations—like this summer’s big project, which resulted in 10 community-created, mosaic-embellished planters for Snelling Avenue—that both beautify the area and, generally, bring folks together in the process. Since they started offering popular DIY classes like “Trash to Treasure Mosaics,” which teach people to create mosaic tabletops, vases, birdbaths, benches, and even house numbers, the passion Lori and Maria have for the art of mosaic has become contagious—everyone’s getting into the act. A well-regarded mosaicist in her own right, Lori Greene has set up her studio in the back room of The Stick. It’s a friendly space, crowded with half-finished pieces, supply catalogs, bins of colored tile and glass, shop invoices and an embellished mirror she’s been commissioned to create for a little girl’s room. As she’s showing me around Lori points out some of her work, thinking out loud. She gestures at the top of a file cabinet, toward a baby doll adorned with a bird on its head and a mosaic hoop-skirt dotted with a riot of tile and glass. “I’m not sure what she needs, but she’s not quite done yet. That feels too much like a prom dress.” She indicates another little sculpture she’s got facing the corner. “I think that one’s scary, for some reason. It’s done, but I’m not sure what it’s really about—I don’t know if I like it.” I ask her about the birds that appear so frequently in her sculptures, often on her figures’ heads. “It’s from Yoruba legend—birds are messengers to the gods and they often show up in traditional artwork. I just fell in love with Yoruba artwork—the beaded masks the kings wear, the fine handwork—it’s so powerful and passionate.” In fact, Greene’s work is infused throughout with the imagery of her African and Native American ancestry and dream-born totems to the potency of femininity and motherhood. Hers aren’t saccharine renderings of Mom and apple pie—Greene’s women are exuberantly, ferociously female. In Greene’s world, babies aren’t harmless. Her figures of mother and child are beautiful, yes, but they often belie ambivalence in motherhood, too—even fear. Her work is rife with babies and dolls, but they’re rarely sweet. “Dolls make me uncomfortable, and I’m not sure what it means that I keep using them in my artwork,” she laughs. But these doll-pieces are some of her most peculiar and powerful. King Baby offers a brutally honest depiction of this neglected aspect of new motherhood. “I made that when I was pregnant with my son. I’d just found out he was going to be born with one kidney. I was so frightened, and I kept having these dreams about him. That’s where this piece came from.” Metamorphosis is a child obscured by a beaded crown, powerful, even regal, and a little frightening in its aspect. Another sculpture, Double Mama, on the other hand, is lighter-hearted and even a little cheeky—a two-headed female figure whose bold beading and large breasts compete for the viewer’s attention. She explains a little ruefully, “I worked on this one when I was pregnant with my son, too—when I was wondering how we’d all manage. I kept thinking how much easier this would be, with three small kids, if there were two of me.” Greene’s public work is no less intimate—focusing on the power of heritage and generational ties. The work commissioned for the Midtown Global Market, a series of large statues collectively called Divination Systems, is particularly stunning. “That was a wonderful project. I’d been dreaming of these pieces for years, and when Midtown called and told me simply ‘We want something like Sangoma’, I was thrilled. I knew just what to do.” For Greene, art isn’t a solitary affair—it’s a community endeavor, rooted in personal connections, neighborhoods, and family. The lines between personal expression, collaboration, education and public display are porous in her artwork. It isn’t surprising that once a piece is finished, Greene doesn’t feel particularly possessive of it. “It’s like vomiting, I guess,” she laughs. “I have something I need to purge myself of, and when I work, I release it. For me, it’s all about the process, the work itself. I don’t have a specific plan in mind when I begin something, I just put the pieces together. For me, I love the power of losing myself in fine hand-work—it’s almost like a trance or a spiritual experience. I leave the rest to whoever wants to have the finished work—once it’s done, I don’t need to control it. I’m not really even sure what these pieces mean, to tell you the truth. But I can’t imagine not doing this work. It’s who I am.” And if you’re still wondering, to make a Martin Luther King Jr. mosaic, you want a mix of browns for your tile work, not just one shade—maybe some mocha and beige, and even a bit of cream for texture. Mosaic on a Stick is gearing up for its spring 2007 class schedule. If you want to learn how to make your own mosaics, sign up for “Trash to Treasure Mosaics,” or take a class that’ll teach you how to create a decorative backsplash for the kitchen or unusual mosaic house numbers to enhance your home’s curbside appeal. And don’t forget to check in on the website periodically for news about how you can get involved with upcoming community projects.

--Susannah Schouweiler

Lori Greene's mnartists.org home page

Lori Greene's personal website
Browse through Greene's personal artwork and a gallery of her public and commissioned pieces

Mosaic on a Stick
The shop website will keep you up to date on community art projects on the horizon, mosaic DIY classes being offered, and, of course, you can stock up on supplies.

Susannah Schouweiler on mnartists.org

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